Nikolay Imchuk was born on 20 May 1930. He is one of the youngest soldiers of the WWII.  After the outbreak of the war the German aviation bombed his orphanage in Uman, near Kiev, Ukraine. Nikolay Imchuk was just eleven when he was wounded in the very first days of the war .Later, he became a prisoner of war, an escaped prisoner of war, an underground fighter, then a messenger in a regular Soviet army unit. He ended the war in Vienna as the “foster child”, attached to a rocket-mortar regiment. He served at the Katyusha Rocket Launcher regiment. Soldiers educated him and he became a professional soldier during 1942-1945.  His artillery unit took part in the liberation of Budapest and Vienna. He has been awarded Order of the Patriotic War and Medal “For the Capture of Budapest”.

His memory of those dramatic years is recounted with a lightness and vitality that avoids embellishment and glorification.